Amazon steals Apple and Google's thunder with its Cloud Player and Cloud Drive

We know that Google and Apple are working on their own music streaming services, but while we were debating which of them would get to the market first, Amazon has sneaked in and beaten them both to the punch.

The Amazon Cloud Player arrives today for PC and Android, and its launch continues Amazon's steady move into the mobile space. Surely that Amazon tablet is the next step?

Amazon's take on cloud-based music streaming, which is sadly only for the US at this stage, comes in two parts: the Cloud Player itself and the Cloud Drive your media is stored on.

The Player comes in versions for the web and Android – but not iOS, notably, reaffirming the close relationship between Amazon and Google in the battle against Apple.

You get 5GB of storage free of charge, and can access your media from any computer. The big drawcard, though, is that any album you buy through Amazon MP3 is stored free on your Cloud Drive, and buying just a single album will see Amazon up your free storage quota to 20GB for a year.

The space doesn't have to be used just for music, either. You can use it for storing any other kind of file too. If you are sticking to music, your tunes will have to be in either MP3 or AAC, though, and DRM-free too.

Aside from your free allowance, 20GB of storage has been priced in the US at $20 per year, 50GB costs £50 and the pattern continues for 100GB right up to 1TB, which will set you back a full $1,000.

The Amazon Cloud Player, meanwhile, is built into the Amazon MP3 app to be found on both the Android Market and the Amazon Appstore.

We don't have any clues yet as to how long we'll have to wait for an international launch, but it does give us the chance to ask: Amazon, Apple or Google: whose cloud-based music streaming service do you most like the sound of? Give us your thoughts in the Comments below.

Amazon of course operate in a world of free unlimited data plans where everyone has pet unicorns.
What's that? Wifi, you say? Yes, wifi...why not stream free radio while on WiFi.
"battle against Apple"? A noble coalition of the willing, then. Oh wait, no - they are all after our money. But I'm sure the Amazon worker who cannot afford an iPhone is happy that s/he helps the war-effort.
There. NOW coffee.